Product Description

When her mother leaves Haiti to find work in the US, Sophie is raised by her aunt. Their parting, years later, when her mother sends for her, is as wrenching as the reunion in New York. Though she barely knows her mother they both carry secrets from their homeland that will haunt them forever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149060 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"I come from a place where breath, eyes and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head. Where women return to their children as butterflies or as tears in the eyes of the statues that their daughters pray to." The place is Haiti and the speaker is Sophie, the heroine of Edwidge Danticat's novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory. Like her protagonist, Danticat is also Haitian; like her, she was raised in Haiti by an aunt until she went to the United States age 12. Indeed, in her short stories, Danticat has often drawn on her background to fund her fiction and she continues to do so in her debut novel.

The story begins in Haiti, on Mother's Day, when young Sophie discovers that she is about to leave the only home she has ever known with her Tante Atie in Croix-des-Rosets, Haiti, to go live with her mother in New York City. These early chapters in Haiti are lovely, subtly evoking the tender, painful relationship between the motherless child and the childless woman who feels honour bound to guard the natural mother's rights to the girl's affections above her own. Presented with a Mother's Day card, Tante Atie responds: "'It is for a mother, your mother.' She motioned me away with a wave of her hand. "When it is Aunt's Day, you can make me one.'" Danticat also uses these pages to limn a vibrant portrait of life in Haiti from the cups of ginger tea and baskets of cassava bread served at community potlucks to the folk tales of a "people in Guinea who carry the sky on their heads."

With Sophie's transition from a fairly happy existence with her aunt and grandmother in rural Haiti to life in New York with a mother she has never seen, Danticat's roots as a short-story writer become more evident; Breath, Eyes, Memory begins to read more like a collection of connected stories than a seamlessly evolved novel. In a couple of short chapters, Sophie arrives in New York, meets her mother, makes the acquaintance of her mother's new boyfriend, Marc, and discovers that she was the product of a rape when her mother was a teenager in Haiti. The novel then jumps several years ahead to Sophie's graduation from high school and her infatuation with an older man who lives next door. Unfortunately, this is also the point in the novel where Danticat begins to lay her themes on with a trowel instead of a brush: Sophie's mother becomes obsessed with protecting her daughter's virginity, going so far as to administer physical "tests" on a regular basis--testing which leads eventually to a rift in their relationship and to Sophie's struggle with her own sexuality. Soon the litany of victimisation is flying thick and fast: female genital mutilation, incest, rape, frigidity, breast cancer and abortion are the issues that arise in the final third of the novel, eventually drowning both fine writing and perceptive characterisation under a deluge of angst.

Still, there is much to admire about Breath, Eyes, Memory, and if at times the plot becomes overheated, Danticat's lyrical, vivid prose offers some real delight. If nothing else, this novel is sure to entice readers to look for Danticat's short stories--and possibly to sample other fiction from the West Indies as well. --Alix Wilber, Amazon.com

Review
'A first novel of precious humanity which mingles past and present, the horrors and delights of Haiti, in a quiet and dignified prose that would be impressive in a writer twice her age.' INDEPENDENT 'Extraordinary... a young and genuinely fresh voice.' TIME OUT 'Stuffed with folk wisdom with a sprinkling of urban angst... a vision of female solidarity which transcends place and time.' SUNDAY TIMES 'she delicately tiptoes with poetic intent...brief, lyrical, disturbing novel...' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'What makes this novel so extraordinary is the way that Danticat makes the reader understand the strenght of traditional Haitian culture...Danticat is a young and geniunely fresh voice.' TIME OUT 'Danticat's somple prose is a blend of folklore and facts. But her hard-worn wisdom will break your heart.' OPTIONS 'Breath, Eyes, Memory is a strange, disconcerting novel, but one that refuses to be forgotten.' THE SCOTSMAN

About the Author
Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti in 1969 under the dicatatorial Duvalier regime. Her award-winning short stories, was nominated for the 1995 National Book Award. She has been chosen as one of the New Yorker magazine's '20 Young Writers for the 21st Century.'

Customer Reviews

A Moving story
Breath, Eyes, Memory is one of the books written about the Caribbean that I really enjoyed. Like Edwidge Danticat's other novels and stories this story is well written in a lyrical evocative style. What I cherish about the story is the fact that I came to have a better understanding of Haiti, their culture which is close to that of Benin in Africa and their rich though mysterious belief. Much of the pains, fears, horrors and complications of Haitian history are unveiled in this amazing story which can make you cry, sigh, laugh, angry and happy in different turns. This true to life story is a recommended read.

Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES,TRIPLE AGENT DOUBLE CROSS, CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY

poignant, beautiful in its simplicity
This is one of the most moving , and touching books I've ever read. It is so elegantly written: there is poetry in every other page. I lent this book to all my friends and they were equally moved. Though it tells the story a mother/daughter relationship set in the context of the Haitian culture, it is equally applicable to women all over the Third World.

Unbelievable!
I read this book in one day. It is a fascinating account of what so many in our society - those who move to the U.S from different places with different traditions - go through today. This push and pull relationship between homeland and home. This tug-of-war between what is American and what is not. And the traditions, whether good or bad. Do they stay, or should they go? Danticat does not answer these questions, for each person must answer it for themselves. Yet, she gives us a book we can relate to, we can fall in love with, and hopefully one day we will resolve what we need to resolve and know the answer to our foremothers' calls of freedom.